


Checkmate

by SymphonicFantasia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Memory Loss, Mentions of Sheith, but i'm going with lady pronouns for her this time around, i'm pretty neutral with pronouns for pidge, matt loves his alien conspiracy theories, she/her prounouns for pidge, so don't be shocked if i write something and i use he/him or they/them for pidge in another fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 17:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8542501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SymphonicFantasia/pseuds/SymphonicFantasia
Summary: Shiro is still put off by how cold Pidge was to him when he first came back to Earth. Memories of his life with the Holt family are in shattered pieces, but he can't seem to figure out what brings this reaction from her. This bothers him, but he can't just ask this question. Good thing they can at least play chess, right?





	

There were still bits and pieces of his past that he had forgotten. Things that held importance, but not of the dire kind. He didn't know what his blood type was or who first started the Galaxy Garrison. Heck, he even forgot that there was a debate thousands of years ago about Pluto being a planet or not. Things that he could learn again if he needed to.

One thing bothered him, though. When he returned to Earth, it was easy to remember his relationship with Keith and how much he meant to him. That was something he couldn't forget. His relationship with Pidge? Now, that was a bit fuzzy. Shiro could remember events with the Holt's and how close he was to them. He remembered having dinner with them and just being around to visit the family. Fuzzy or not, those memories were still there.

That's what bothered him. That, despite how close he was to the Holt's, Pidge had treated him like a stranger. In the beginning of their long journey, he remembered seeing her glaring at him from the corner of his eye. It wasn't possible for him to imagine how close he was to the Holt's, was it? Shiro toyed with the idea once, claiming to himself that he was only close to Matt and Samuel. Then a memory from his past would come out of nowhere, proving him wrong.

It was much different now, at the year and a half mark of their journey. Pidge wasn't glaring at him and they seemed to have gained their closeness back. Her initial cold shoulder in the beginning still got to him and he yearned to know the reason behind it.

"Why don't you just ask her?" Keith suggested. After hearing about it from Shiro, he entertained the idea, even after knowing he would never do it.

"Maybe I only imagined it, Keith," Shiro would answer. "I don't want to assume anything."

Keith would snort, crossing his arms. "You don't just  _imagine_  things, Takashi. Just ask her to find out. What's the worse that could happen?"

Shiro could name  _several_  things that could go wrong. Things that could make her give him the cold shoulder again. With their critical roles to form Voltron, that was something that could  _not_  happen. The fate of the universe would be in danger if it did. But even Shiro knew that he would have to ask Pidge about it. If not to put himself at ease, to at least have Keith stop asking him about it once a week. All he needed was the perfect opportunity to do it.

That moment came when he walked into the Green Lion's hangar. On a usual day, Shiro could find Hunk in here, helping Pidge with an experiment. For the first time in Shiro didn't know  _how_  long, Pidge was alone, fingers typing away at her laptop. What better time than right now to talk to her?

"What are you up to now?" Shiro questioned, resting his palms on the table.

"Remember that planet with all the weird flora stuff?" Her fingers never stopped typing and she didn't wait for a response. "I'm just trying to figure out if they hold any healing properties. The ship helps us enough, but it doesn't hurt to have something in the heat of battle. You know, just in case some  _serious_  injuries happen and we can't get back to the Castle of Lions just yet."

A smart idea. Then again, Shiro  _always_  thought that Pidge was smart. Even back before Kerberos when he met her when she was 11. "I don't know what we'd do without you on the team," Shiro commented, a smile plastered on his face.

Pidge took on that cocky grin of hers, adjusting her glasses. "I'm sure you guys would be able to manage. Just not as well."

That was a fact. Shiro didn't need any other situation to prove it. With all the modifications she had done to the Green Lion, she's helped a lot in many of their missions. Without her help, they could have gone more South than any of them planned.

But Shiro wasn't here to boost her ego. He came here to talk to her about something that was bothering him. Actually, now that he had her attention, he was ready to walk away and never bring it up. Keith would ask him if he did it, but he could tell him something. It wouldn't be a good lie and Keith would see right through it, but it was something.

"Is something wrong?" Pidge asked. Her confidence was gone, now looking at him with concern.

He couldn't chicken out now. His fingers drummed on the table, trying to think of a way to bring it up. Something so simple shouldn't be  _this_  hard. All he had to do was open his mouth and ask.

"Play a game of chess with me."

Pidge's expressions turned to a confused one, an eyebrow raising up her forehead. "We haven't played chess in  _years_ , Shiro. Do you still know how to play?"

"I haven't forgotten  _everything_ , Katie." Out of everyone on this ship, Shiro was the only one who called her that. It wasn't often and only when they were alone. He made it a point to never say it in battle, an underlying fear that the Galra may mention it within earshot of Matt or Samuel. An unlikely possibility, but one he took into account, just in case.

"Did you remember your blood type yet? Or where your apartment is off Garrison property?" Pidge asked, gaining her cocky attitude once again. When Shiro didn't answer, only pursed his lips as he thought, she laughed. "Well, this will be an easy win."

Pidge grabbed her little device and pressed a few buttons. Setting it down on the table between them, a hologram chess board appeared. Black was facing Shiro and white was directed at Pidge. She offered to switch the board, but Shiro declined it. It turned out that he  _does_  need a bit of a jumpstart to remember how the pieces move.

After Pidge made her first move, memories return like a trickle of rain. It wasn't just the pieces and how they moved, but also Pidge's strategies. The ones she used on him countless times and how to break through them. It's easy to move his piece and she was quick to move the next. Back and forth it went until Pidge was the winner.

One game becomes two, then three, then four, until they've lost count. With each game, Shiro had come close to beating her, only for Pidge to snatch victory back. This was something he hadn't realized he missed. Simple things like enjoying a game of chess. For a brief moment, he's able to forget that a war was happening right outside the hanger.

"Can I ask you something?" Shiro finally asked, moving a piece.

"It's not relationship advice, is it?" Pidge asked in return, her brow furrowing. "I get it enough from Hunk. Apparently, he thinks Lance might be getting bored of him."

Shiro couldn't keep from smiling at that. "No, I think I'm okay in that department. Unless you're telling me Keith has been coming to  _you_  for relationship advice. Should this concern me?"

"Not yet. But shoot. What's the question?"

"When I first came back to Earth, why were you so cold to me?"

Pidge's finger hovered over her piece. She stared at him, her brow furrowed in confusion before realization set in. Red spread across her face and she looked back down at the board, moving a piece to take Shiro's pawn. Darn it. "I didn't think you'd notice that."

"You weren't subtle."

She ran her fingers through her hair, analyzing the board, or at least pretending she was. "It's not something I'm proud to admit, Shiro. I mean, it's kind of petty now that I think about it."

Shiro still wanted to know the reason. He moved another piece, hoping to nab a bishop on his next turn. "Tell me."

Pidge saw his strategy and maneuvered the piece away, claiming another piece of his. "I've been mad at you for a while, Shiro. You had an argument with my brother the last time you were at my place and it started from there. When you came back to Earth, with _out_ my brother and father, well, that just amplified it more."

He moved another piece, strategy thrown out the window. He's already accepted that he can't beat Pidge just yet. It'll take longer to gain back what talent he had for it. Right now, his mind was more focused on Pidge's words, his mind trying to make sense of it. "I had a fight with your brother?"

She nodded her head, claiming another one of his pieces. "You did. It's not easy to rile my brother up, Shiro. We both know that he's as cuddly as a giant sheepdog." Pidge fixed her glasses, her gaze on the board. "I've never seen him  _that_  angry before and it just... stuck with me. Family friend or not, I hated you for making him mad like that."

Shiro had made friends with confusion since he escaped the Galra Empire. It wasn't something he could shrug off like a coat. It stayed with him as much as his metal arm did. Having a fight with Matt didn't ring a bell. It took a few cycles of his memories to even try and remember the event.

When he does, he laughed. He laughed and Pidge looked at him like he's lost what remained of his mind.

"Katie," Shiro started, wiping a tear away, "did he ever tell you what that fight was  _about_?"

Pidge shook her head, ending the game with one touch of her finger. Checkmate. "I didn't ask him. Didn't think it was my place, really."

"You're going to laugh." When Pidge gave him her full attention, the new game abandoned, he chuckled. "It was about an alien conspiracy we were discussing for Kerberos."

He was met with silence. Pidge stared at him with a blank look before she sneered, looking away from him. "Yeah, that sounds like Matt."

"You know how he is about his alien conspiracies."

"He needed a girlfriend."

"Or a different hobby."

Pidge scoffed. Sliding closer to Shiro, she rested her head against his arm. It was an instinct that took over for Shiro to wrap the arm around her shoulders, giving her a squeeze. "I'm sorry about all that, then. I should have just asked."

Shiro held no hard feelings. He couldn't if he didn't have a reason to. Relief was what he felt, glad to know the reason behind Pidge's coldness towards him. "It's fine. I'm just glad to have that off my chest."

"You were thinking about that  _that_  much?"

"More than you can imagine." It's a nice feeling that washed over him, being close again to something from before his capture. There was new tickle in the back of his mind now. A type of tickle that he just  _had_  to say. "I want to say that my off Garrison apartment was downtown."

"Swing and a miss."

"Darn it."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm literally all about Shiro and Pidge knowing each other pre-Kerberos. Like, fight me, I can't get enough of this. I will literally cry about their friendship at work. I'm a mess and I'm not sorry.
> 
> Edited: 7/4/17.


End file.
